Afzal Usmani
simaalusmani@gmail.com

Janab Syed Naseem Sahab,

Assalam-o-Alaikum,

First of all we are thankful for a brief over view of AMU campus for last 20 years. Interestingly this is the period when either I was in the campus or have been associated with it very closely.

My intention is not to contradict your observation, but to complement it so that we can have the actual and complete information.

On 15th October 1990, when Prof. M.N Farooqui joined as Vice-Chancellor of AMU Aligarh, an elected AMU Students Union was already existing with Mr. Hafiz Mohd Usman, Mr. Khalid Masood and Mr. Ayub Shabab as President, Vice-President and Honorary Secretary respectively. As per the charter of AMU Students Union, a fresh union election was conducted in 1991 and Mr. S.M. Anwar Hussain, Mr. S.M. Haider Asad and Mr. Fakhrey Ahmad Shobi were elected as President, Vice-President and Secretary respectively. Similarly another election was held just after 1 year in Jan/Feb 1992 and Mr. HM Azam Beg, Mr. Hasan Aziz Amir and Mr. Syed Abrar Ahmad "Cheeku" were elected as President, Vice-President and Secretary respectively.

During this period, for unknown reasons Prof. M.N. Farooqi and his administration tried to run a parallel Students Union by patronizing those candidates who had lost AMUSU election for President and VP , viz. Mr. Khalid Masood and Mr. Azam Mir Khan. In Jan/Feb 1993, after completing 1 year of term, the elected Students Union was dissolved and Prof. Farooqi installed an Ad hoc Students Union with Mr. Hafiz Irshad Ahmad as the President.

The Ad hoc Union declared the election in April 1993. However, just2-3 days before voting, a very unfortunate incident took place in Shamshad Market and police opened fire and one student, who was very well known to me, Mr. Jaunaid Shamshad died. Another student and my batch mate Meraj Fakhri was injured. Due to this unfortunate incident University was shut down and hence the elections postponed. However, the ad hoc Students Union under the President ship of Mr. Hafiz Irshad Ahmad continued to function for almost a year after that and upon Hafiz Irshad Ahmad's election to UP Assembly from Gopalpur, Azamgarh and his deputy Kr. Arif Ali Khan's sentence to jail, the Ad hoc AMU Students Union was dissolved and another Adhoc Union was appointed to conduct the election. This lead to the last election of Prof. M.N. Farooqi's tenure and Mr. Khalid Masood finally won President ship in his 3rd bid for President AMUSU. Mr. Merajuddin Ahmad was elected VP and Mr. Mohd Aslam was Secretary of AMUSU.

In total, Prof. Farooqi ordered 4 general elections in 4 years, and installed 2 Ad hoc Students Union.

I do not think he was under any pressure to have ordered 4 general elections in 4 years and also installed 2 Ad hoc Students Union.

In fact it was due to Prof. M.N. Farooqui’s decision to suspend President of AMUSU Mr. HM Azam Beg just days before the First International Sir Syed Day in 1992, that the campus was again embroiled in controversies and restlessness. That resulted in the disruption of the entire Celebration and finally the Sir Syed Day dinner of Cricket Pavilion was cancelled by the VC and was organized in respective Halls of residence. Although the suspension of President AMUSU, Mr. Beg was revoked a day or two before Sir Syed Day, it was by now too late and the First International Sir Syed Day, which was incidentally also the 175th Birth Anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, fell victim to AMU Campus Politics. The main reason of suspension of President of AMUSU was make his deputy as President on the behest of one his main figure of AMU Administration.

The turmoil in AMU campus during Prof. Farooqui's tenure was started when his first PVC (a number of PVCs served under Prof. Farooqui), an AMU alum and IIT Delhi faculty Prof. S.M. Yahya resigned from his position, just after completing one year in May 1992. In his resignation letter, Prof. Yahya clearly complained about a group of students lead by Mr. Merajuddin Ahmad who misbehaved with him. Prof. Farooqi could not take any action against those as they were patronized by a senior faculty who was a key aspirant of the position of Pro-Vice Chancellor. On June 1st 1992, when AMU Students Union was giving a farewell to Prof. S.M. Yahya, the same group of students lead by Mr. Merajuddin Ahmad attacked Students Union Hall, opened fire, beat up president and his few supporters and once again misbehaved with Prof. S.M. Yahya. It was well known that who opened fire and who misbehaved with AMUSU President and outgoing PVC Prof. Yahya, but no action was taken against the culprit.

When the same Students Union reached to AMU Vice-Chancellors office to ask to take action against those culprits, Prof. Farooqi's parallel Students Union group lead by Mr. Khalid Masood came with firearms in their hands to save Prof. Farooqi. Of course due to firearms, general students present with AMUSU were scared and only two brave students, Mr. Faheem Ahmad Khan "Rabbu" and Zubair Ahmad Khan saved President AMUSU and left the scene. Prof. Farooqi openly thanked Mr. Khalid Masood to save his life.

We fail to understand, how the elected Students Union which was only protesting could have posed a danger to the life of Prof Farooqi. The remaining 2 1/2 years, he was completely in the clutches of Mr. Khalid Masood and paid the debt which he owed to him for his 1st June 1992 act. This was a well know fact in the campus during that time that Mr. Khalid Masood is patronized by AMU VC, Mr. Merajuddin Ahmaed who openly misbehaved with Prof. S.M. Yahya was patronized by Pro-Vice Chancellor and Mr. Azam Mir Khan was patronized by Mrs. Najma Akhtar, Controller of Examination and Admission.

Finally when Prof. Farooqi resigned in Nov 1994. His last order was even more amazing/ surprising.

Prof. Farooqi removed Prof. Abul Hasan Siddiqi as Pro-Vice Chancellor, appointed Prof. Shamim Ahmad (popularly known as Prof. Khwaja Shamim) as PVC. Removed Mrs. Najma Akhtar from the position of Controller of Admission and Examination and appointed Prof. Humayun Murad as Controller of Admission and Examination.

Strangely though, he appointed Mrs. Najma Akhtar as Director of Academic Program (DAP), a position held by Prof. Farid Ghani during Prof. Farooqi's entire tenure. This position of DAP was almost a parallel position to PVC. DAP was a member of EC, Court and EC.

Here is a million dollar question;
How can Prof. Farooqi justify the appointment of a Non-Academic person as a Director of Academic Program of a Central University?

Do we think AMU Students Union was behind this?

"You reap what you sow"
I will give time to readers to go through it and correct me, wherever I may be wrong.

I will write about the tenure of Mr. Mahmoodur Rahman, Mr. Hamid Ansari, Mr. Naseem Ahmad and Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis and their association with AMU Students Union's affair in next phases.